Application Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks

Denial of Services attacks aimed at disrupting network services range from simple bandwidth exhaustion attacks and those targeted at flaws in commercial software to complex distributed attacks exploiting specific COTS software flaws. These types of attack are not new and have been used to devastating effect to prevent normal operation of the victim sites. Historically, these attacks by hacktivists and extortionists alike have targeted companies as diverse as eBay and Microsoft, the RIAA and SCO, and a plethora of online gambling companies.

Attackers have not, as yet, exploited the full range of vulnerabilities present in many online services – particularly attacks aimed at the application and data processing layer. With the rise of increasingly targeted and motivated attacks and attackers, these application level DoS attacks will inevitably be exploited for nefarious gains.

This paper gives an insight into application level DoS attacks and draws conclusions from that.